Sunday, January 22, 2012

Egypt, the Shari'a, and the rights of non-Muslims

There is a fine article at the blog Free Orthodox Mind on the topic of the Islam being the basis of Egyptian law. The writer (a Copt) argues persuasively that it is impossible for Shari'a and Human Rights to co-exist.

Egypt today, England tomorrow, my friends. Read it all HERE. A sample:

- Gender inequality, the Islamic law hinders women from being judges, and from testifying in courts. A woman can't be a judge and can't testify in a court because she is inferior to man.

- Apostates (riddah) lose their possessions; a convert from Islam would lose his/her worldly possessions as well as other rights. In addition it's nearly impossible for them to change their religion in their IDs, and they have to be hidden from people in order not to be killed as according the Quran and the Islamic law the apostate should be killed (Quran 2:217) 
- Witnessing in courts, A “Just” witness has to be a “free Muslim, i.e. not a slave Muslim”; non-Muslims witness in court is not admissible according to Islamic law. (Quran 2:282), on example happened in Shubra El Kehma court (case number 1824/year 2008), when the judge refused to hear the testimony of a Christian person Samy Farag in the case of  a death of a Muslim old man.
- The killing of Non-Muslim does not lead to the same punishment as killing a Muslim; this requires taking a look at some modern history. 

2 comments:

Dr. Adam DeVille said...

While on the topic of non-Muslims and their treatment under Islamic law, you may be interested in the following discussion of how Syriac Christians fared under Islamic law in the early imperial period: http://easternchristianbooks.blogspot.com/2012/01/uriel-simonsohn-on-law-and-justice.html

Abu Daoud said...

Hi Adam,

Dropped by your blog and found it very thought-provoking.

One of my main areas of interest is conversion from Islam to Christianity, if you know of any studies of this topic do let me know.

And thanks for dropping by!

--AD